The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters of a Soldier, by Anonymous

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Title: Letters of a Soldier
1914-1915

Author: Anonymous

Commentator: A. Clutton-Brock
Andre Chevrillon

Translator: V.M.

Release Date: December 15, 2005 [EBook #17316]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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LETTERS OF A SOLDIER

You do not know the things that are taught by him
who falls. I do know.

(_Letter of October 15, 1914._)

LETTERS OF A SOLDIER

1914-1915

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
A. CLUTTON-BROCK

AND A PREFACE BY
ANDRE CHEVRILLON

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY
V.M.

LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD
1917

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii

PREFACE BY ANDRE CHEVRILLON 3

LETTERS 33

INTRODUCTION

I have been asked to write an Introduction to these letters; and I do
so, in spite of the fact that M. Chevrillon has already written one,
because they are stranger to me, an Englishman, than they could be to
him a Frenchman; and it seems worth while to warn other English readers
of this strangeness. But I would warn them of it only by way of a
recommendation. We all hope that after the war there will be a growing
intimacy between France and England, that the two countries will be
closer to each other than any two countries have ever been before. But
if this is to happen we must not be content with admiring each other.
Mere admiration will die away; indeed, some part of our present
admiration of the French has come from our failure to understand them.
There is a surprise in it which they cannot think flattering, and which
ought never to have been. Perhaps they also have been surprised by us;
for it is certain that we have not known each other, and have been
content with those loose general o